Get found in search and in AI answers, without paying commission on every booking
Most tourism operator websites are thin, slow and dated, so they lose searches that should be easy wins. Real content about your experiences and your area, sound technical basics and a fast site get you ranking for the searches people actually book from. And unlike an OTA, a booking from search costs you nothing extra.
Search is where trips start. Someone types the experience you sell into Google, or increasingly asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, and the businesses that show up get the booking. If that is not you, it is an OTA or a competitor, and the OTA charges you 20% or more for the privilege of handing your own customer back to you.
The work is not mysterious. Useful content about what you offer and where you are, page titles that say what each page is, a site Google has fully indexed, and load times under three seconds. We took one operator's site from a speed score of 24 out of 100 to 98 out of 100 without changing a word of content. Fundamentals done properly beat clever tricks, and the results compound: a page that ranks keeps bringing commission-free bookings long after the work is paid for.
Rank for the searches people book from, not just your own name
Most tourism operator websites are thin, slow and dated. A handful of pages, a booking button, and not much else. That is why they lose searches that should be easy wins. If someone searches for the experience you sell, in the place you sell it, and your site does not come up, that booking goes to whoever does. Usually an OTA, who will happily sell your region back to you at 20% commission.
The fix is real, useful content about your experiences and your area. Not filler written to please a search engine, but pages that genuinely answer what a traveller planning a trip wants to know:
- What the experience is actually like, in enough depth to earn the ranking
- The questions people ask before they book: seasons, weather, what to bring, who it suits
- Your area itself, because people research the destination before they pick the activity
- Pages built around the ready-to-book searches, not just your brand name
Ranking for your own name is table stakes. Ranking for the searches made by people who have not heard of you yet is where the growth is. That content becomes an asset that keeps working, and it sits at the centre of everything else in our tourism and hospitality marketing approach. It also gives visitors who are not ready to book a reason to join your list, which is where email marketing takes over.
The unglamorous checks that decide whether you get found
Before any clever strategy, the basics have to hold. Here is a check you can do right now: search site:yourdomain.com in Google. That shows you every page Google has actually indexed from your site. Operators are regularly surprised by what they find. Key pages missing, old pages still hanging around, or far fewer pages than they thought they had. If Google has not indexed a page, it cannot rank, full stop.
Next, look at your page titles. We use a three-second rule: can a searcher tell what the page is, in three seconds, from the title alone? Titles like "Home" or a bare business name fail that test. Title tags still matter, they are one of the clearest signals you can send about what a page offers, and most operator sites waste them.
Then there is speed. Google wants your site loading in under three seconds, and a slow site loses both rankings and the visitors who do arrive. This is often the cheapest win on the whole list. We took one operator's site from a speed score of 24 out of 100 to 98 out of 100 with a host change and optimisation. No content changed at all. Same site, same pages, transformed performance.
People are asking ChatGPT where to book. Will it mention you?
Search is changing shape. People now ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to plan their trips, and Google's AI overviews answer many searches before anyone clicks a result. When a traveller asks an AI what to do in your area, the answer comes from what those systems can find and trust about you. If your site is thin, the AI has nothing to quote, and the answer features someone else.
The good news: the same work that earns rankings earns AI visibility. Real, specific content about your experiences and area gives the answer engines something concrete to draw on. Clear page titles and a properly indexed, fast site make you findable. Depth and specifics make you quotable. There is no trick to it, just doing the fundamentals properly while most of your competitors do not.
And this is the part worth sitting with: SEO compounds. A page that ranks keeps bringing bookings month after month with no cost per click and no commission per booking. Paid channels like Google Ads are the fastest way to bookings and we run them for exactly that reason, but the search work you invest in now keeps paying you back, commission-free, for years.
SEO and AI search for tourism operators, answered
Why does SEO matter if I can just run ads?
Because they do different jobs. Ads buy visibility instantly and switch off the moment you stop paying. SEO builds visibility slowly and keeps delivering after the work is done. A page that ranks for a ready-to-book search brings in bookings month after month with no cost per click and no commission. The strongest operators we see run both: Google Ads for immediate, controllable bookings, and search content as the compounding asset underneath.
How do I know if Google has even indexed my site?
Search site:yourdomain.com in Google. The results are every page Google has indexed from your site. Check that your key pages are there: your main experience pages, your booking page, your about page. Operators are regularly surprised by what this turns up, from missing pages to old ones that should have been retired years ago. A page Google has not indexed cannot rank, so this is always the first check.
Do title tags still matter?
Yes. They remain one of the clearest signals you can send about what a page offers, and they are what searchers read when deciding whether to click. Apply the three-second rule: can someone tell what the page is, in three seconds, from the title alone? "Home" fails. Your business name on its own fails. A title that names the experience and the place passes. Most operator sites fail this test on their most important pages, which makes it an easy win.
How fast does my site need to be?
Google wants your site loading in under three seconds. Slower than that and you lose twice: rankings suffer, and the visitors who do arrive give up before your booking page loads. The encouraging part is how fixable this usually is. We took one operator's site from a speed score of 24 out of 100 to 98 out of 100 with a host change and optimisation, without touching the content. Speed is often the cheapest improvement on the whole list.
What is AI search and do I need to worry about it?
People increasingly ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to plan trips, and Google's AI overviews answer many searches with no click at all. Those systems build their answers from what they can find and trust about you online. You do not need a separate AI strategy, you need to be findable and quotable: a fast, properly indexed site, clear page titles and real, specific content about your experiences and area. The best time to do that work is before your competitors do. A Growth Plan Session is the quickest way to see where you stand.
Book a Growth Plan Session and we will look at what Google has indexed, how fast your site really is, and whether the AI answer engines can find you at all, then tell you straight where the wins are. You get value out of it whether or not we work together afterwards.
We work best with owners who want a trusted partner and let the experts they hire do their best work.